‘Civil War’ Trailer: Kirsten Dunst Hits Front Lines Amid Air Strikes and Government Collapse

The portrayal of war and societal collapse in film is beginning to feel increasingly less dystopian in its mirroring of the real world. In the trailer for A24’s upcoming film Civil War, Kirsten Dunst is a photographer on the front lines of an epic battle in which civilians and journalists alike are being targeted by government air strikes.

“Every time I survived a war-zone, I thought I was sending a warning home,” Dunst’s character states. “‘Don’t do this.’ But here we are.” In one moment, a news reporter announces over the radio that 19 states have seceded. In another, the President of the United States (played by Nick Offerman) declares: “Citizens of America, the so-called Western forces of Texas and California have suffered a very great defeat at the hands of the United States military.”

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Written and directed by Alex Garland, Civil War is described in a synopsis as “a race to the White House in a near-future America balanced on the razor’s edge.” In one of the trailer’s most chilling moments, the president recites the Pledge of Allegiance while tanks and bombs demolish entire buildings with no regard for the sky-rocketing casualties.

In a 2022 interview with the Telegraph, Garland said that the film might be the last he directs before pivoting primarily to screenwriting. He also described Civil War as somewhat of a companion piece to his British folk horror film Men (2022). He added that it is “set at an indeterminate point in the future – just far enough ahead for me to add a conceit,” and functions as an allegory for our present-day societal polarization.

Civil War also stars Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Cailee Spaeny, who recently starred in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

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